Duckie Brown

Steven Cox and Daniel Silver's evolution as designers has taken them from merry pranksters to (relatively) sober upholders of menswear tradition. Their latest show threw that evolutionary process into reverse, opening in a gray mood as restrained as the models' slicked-down side parts and climaxing in the whacked-out excess of a huge jacket in pink tweed thrown over a long, gauzy plaid shirt and baggy gingham trousers. (By this point, the slicked-down hair had also gone wild.)

Between the two extremes, we were treated to an oversize zebra-print silk shirt worn over a thigh-length pink tank and windowpane-check cargo pants, a leopard-print blouson over tartan trousers, more tartan paired with a knee-length chiffon shirt printed with serried ranks of cockroaches…are you getting the picture yet? Color, pattern, and the clash of same were the key. "Like the boys had dressed in the dark," said Silver. "Or like a rave, building to a frenzy in the end," added Cox.

It was, quite literally, vintage Duckie Brown in its revisiting of the long-over-longer proportion, the drop-crotch pant (here as juicily coloured sweats), and the almost feminine bias cutting, which produced, for instance, a shirt in cyclamen chiffon that tied to one side. Most welcome of all, humor was back. There were still plenty of individual pieces here for anyone who has been drawn to Duckie by the precision and somber clarity of recent collections, but those in touch with their inner raver will relish the renaissance of the prankster and go for head-to-toe broke, from the multicolored beanies to the woven suede moccs by Florsheim.